Mother and Child Nutrition

Mother, Infant and Young Child Nutrition & Malnutrition The fight against persistent underweight, stunting and wasting among children in developing countries is based on appropriate
maternal, infant and young child feeding practices including micronutrient deficiencies prevention and control. However, wasted
children are those at immediate risk of dying and will need timely detection and correct management for their survival. More than half of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, which weakens the body's resistance to illness. Poor diet,
frequent illness, and inadequate or inattentive care of young children can lead to malnutrition. Of the 6.6 million deaths among children aged 28 days to five years:
1.7 million (26%) are caused by diarrhoea. 1 million (61%) of these deaths are due to the presence of undernutrition. What is needed: Enough food and the right kinds of food, Nutritional needs of girls and women, Nutritional needs of young children,
Protecting children from infections, Quality care when children fall ill, prevention of Micronutrient deficiencies.

Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of human life, health and development across the entire life span. From the earliest stages of
fetal development, at birth, and through infancy, childhood, adolescence and on into adulthood, proper food and good nutrition are essential for
survival, physical growth, mental development, performance, productivity, health and well-being. More than half of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, which weakens the body's resistance to illness. Poor diet, frequent illness, and inadequate or inattentive care of young children can lead to malnutrition. If a woman is malnourished during pregnancy, or if her child is malnourished during the first two years of life, the child's physical and mental growth and development may be slowed. This cannot be made up when the child is older – it will affect the child for the rest of his or her life. Children have the right to a caring, protective environment and to nutritious food and basic health care to protect them from illness and promote growth and development.

The advent of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) products has greatly improved the coverage and effectiveness treatment for severe acute
malnutrition (SAM). The excitement surrounding this development has led to rapid expansion of SAM treatment activities, often without regard to the
prevalence of SAM, the capacity of local health systems to absorb expansion, or the contribution of SAM to overall child mortality. In the context of
limited health budgets, on epidemiological and ethical grounds treatment approaches are in most situations a less rational public health investment
than approaches that prevent SAM and other types of malnutrition.

Diarrhoea is an important cause of undernutrition. This is because nutrient requirements are increased during diarrhoea, as during
other infectious diseases, whereas nutrient intake and absorption are usually decreased. Each episode of diarrhoea can cause weight loss and
growth faltering. Moreover, if diarrhoea occurs frequently, there may be too little time to "catch up" on growth between episodes, the result being a
flattening of the normal growth curve. Children who experience frequent episodes of acute diarrhoea, or have persistent diarrhoea, are more likely
to become undernourished than children who experience fewer or shorter episodes of diarrhoea. In general, the impact of diarrhoea on nutritional
status is proportional to the number of days a child spends with diarrhoea each year. In turn, undernutrition contributes to the problem of diarrhoea. In children who are undernourished as a result of inadequate feeding, previous
diarrhoeal episodes, or both, acute diarrhoeal episodes are more severe, longer lasting, and probably more frequent; persistent diarrhoea is also
more frequent and dysentery is more severe. The risk of dying from an episode of persistent diarrhoea or dysentery is considerably increased when
a child is already undernourished. In general, these effects are proportional to the degree of undernutrition, being greatest when undernutrition is severe. Thus, diarrhoea and undernutrition combine to form a vicious circle which, if it is not broken, can eventually result in death; the final event may be
a particularly severe or prolonged episode of diarrhoea or, when severe undernutrition is present, another serious infection such as pneumonia.
Deaths from diarrhoea are, in fact, usually associated with undernutrition. In hospitals where good management of dehydration is practised, virtually
all mortality from diarrhoea is in undernourished children. Diarrhoea is, in reality, as much a nutritional disease as one of fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and therapy is not adequate unless both
aspects of the disease are treated. However, in contrast to fluid replacement, nutritional management of diarrhoea requires good feeding
practices both during the illness and between episodes of diarrhoea, when the child is not sick. When this is done, and undernutrition is either
prevented or corrected, the risk of death from a future episode of diarrhoea is greatly reduced.

Infant and Young Child Feeding and Nutrition

Feeding is a critical aspect of caring for infants and young children. Appropriate feeding practices stimulate
bonding with the caregiver and psycho-social development. They lead to improved nutrition and physical growth, reduced susceptibility to common
childhood infections and better resistance to cope with them. Improved health outcomes in young children have long-lasting health effects
throughout the life-span, including increased performance and productivity, and reduced risk of certain non-communicable diseases.

Child Feeding and Nutrition ( 2-5 years age ) Malnutrition contributes to more than half of all childhood deaths, although it is rarely listed as the direct cause. For most children, lack of access
to food is not the only cause of malnutrition. Poor feeding practices and infection, or a combination of the two, are both major factors of
malnutrition. Infection – particularly frequent or persistent diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles and malaria – undermines nutritional status. Poor feeding
practices, such as inadequate breastfeeding, offering the wrong foods, giving insufficient quantities, and not ensuring that the child gets enough
food, contribute to malnutrition. Malnourished children are, in turn, more vulnerable to disease and the vicious circle is established. Improved feeding practices to prevent or treat malnutrition could save 800,000 lives per year.

Counselling for mothers and caretakers

Micronutrient supplements

Management of severe malnutrition

Adolescent Nutrition

Adolescence represents a window of opportunity to prepare for a healthy adult life. During adolescence, nutritional problems originating earlier in
life can potentially be corrected, in addition to addressing current ones. It is also a timely period to shape and consolidate healthy eating and
lifestyle behaviours, thereby preventing or postponing the onset of nutrition-related chronic diseases in adulthood. As adolescents have a low prevalence of infections such as pneumonia and gastroenteritis compared with younger children, and of chronic disease
compared with ageing people, they have generally been given little health and nutrition attention, except for reproductive health concerns. However,
there are nutritional issues, which are adolescent-specific, and which call for specific strategies and approaches. The main issues in adolescent nutrition are:

Micronutrient deficiencies (iron deficiency and anaemia)

Malnutrition and stunting

Obesity and other nutrition-related chronic diseases

Adolescents eating patterns and lifestyles

Nutrition in relation to early pregnancy

Infant and young child feeding

Breast milk is the ideal food for infants and is all they need for optimal growth and health during the first six months of life.
Breastfeeding is considered a pillar of child survival; it provides nourishment, helps develop the immune system, improves response to
vaccines, and prevents many infections, including diarrheal diseases.1
Because of the unique benefits of breast milk, it is recommended that infants continue breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond.
Breastfeeding also provides health benefits for the mother. It is estimated that 1.5 million children die each year because they were not breastfed, particularly not exclusively breastfed through
six months of age. These deaths could be avoided by educating mothers and health workers about the vital role that breastfeeding plays in
keeping infants healthy and by providing support to encourage appropriate feeding practices. In many developing countries, counseling and
support have proven very effective for increasing rates of exclusive breastfeeding for up to six months, in turn reducing infant morbidity and mortality.

Malnutrition, caused by inadequate nutrient intake and disease, is a direct cause of 30 percent of all child deaths in developing
countries and can result in a five-to-ten-fold increase in a child’s risk of death from diarrhea.3 Characterized by low
weight and height for age, and low weight for height, malnutrition can be prevented through optimal infant and young child feeding—exclusive
breastfeeding in the first six months, along with continued breastfeeding and nutritious, hygienically prepared complementary foods during
the six to 24 month period. Feeding should continue during an episode of diarrhea, as well as increased feeding after the episode to
counteract weight loss and prevent malnutrition. PATH’s Infant and Young Child Nutrition
project works in developing countries to promote optimal infant and young child feeding
practices—proven methods for reducing malnutrition and enhancing child growth and survival. UNICEF works to protect, promote and support optimal infant and young child feeding practices as a means to improve nutrition status, growth, development, and health.

Key resources Below are some key documents on breastfeeding and infant nutrition. Please also browse our list of other helpful websites for more resources.

WHO, UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies call for support for appropriate infant and young child feeding in the current Asian emergency, and caution about unnecessary use of milk products[HTML, 12 KB], [PDF, 256 KB]